Beginners Tips

These beginner tips help new players when starting the game for the first time. The game is a detailed simulation of real-world business management. A lot of theories used in the real world can be applied to the game, therefore it can be very daunting when first playing the game. Use these tips to help yourself get more comfortable when first starting out your company.

Beginners Tips
These are some tips and tricks for playing capitalism.

Starting up
Start by selling products from seaports, especially prefer the ones which needs high quality rating / low brand rating. For starters; selling livestock products, bed & sofa, golf clubs, gold rings in high wage rated cities means always profit.

Avoid Competition
Avoid competition at the beginning. Competition results in price wars and lower margins. Expand to unserviced areas first

Consider Place
Consider the cities. Population size and wage rates should affect your early decisions as to what you will produce. Also think about the necessity index of your goods

Add Value
The key to profits are your contribution margins. If you can increase the quality and brand of your goods, your margins will be much better. Ensure you keep them high!

Share Capital
Share capital should be considered carefully. Issuing new shares costs more in the long term but is cheap in the beginning. With shares, you dont need to pay interest, dividends are optional (So it can be viewed as free money). But be careful that you dont issue so many shares that you lose control of your company! (That will cost you a LOT more!)

Consider Rates of Return
Consider rates of return when deciding on financing. If you borrow too much, your loan payments will increase. However if with a loan, you can make more money than the interest being charged, then go for it!

Technology
Use your product expertise for good! especially if it is in toys or computers, build a R&D center as soon as you feel comfortable to afford it's monthly costs.

If you don't want to spend your precious money at start you can still buy the technology from your competitors ( like 1,5, 2 years after the game starts ) check your competitors to see if anyone invented a new product; which are also the most profitable things in the game. For starters; those products can't be produced at the start, you need to invent the required technology in R&D centers. video game consoles, compact cameras, notebook computers etc

When going into a new product line where competition exists, buy the tech first! Its very cheap and allows you to start competing very quickly. (I still think technology is too cheap-Tech AI don't have a chance

Procurement
You never have to do everything yourself. Quite often, I buy several semi products from competitors. You dont have to make everything yourself. This can sometimes be cheaper too (Especially for minerals)

Warehouses
Use warehouses to consolidate your production (Including for semi products). Often a single factory is not enough to service all your shops/factories. Use warehouses to accomplish this (Have a look at my automobile line- especially cars for an example of this- I have 9 factories producing cars- They are going into two different warehouses which then transfer to goods to a third warehouse which services my outlets: It would be good in the throughput of warehouses and factories could be increased further or even an XL size added). Warehouses do increase your overhead though, so watch out for that!

A warehouse connects several factories, to make it easier for you and retail shops to get the goods from one location instead of several. The selling departments of a warehouse can sell more units then the same department in a factory. Also the use of warehouses will even out the goods flow from factories to stores, so you dont have to micromanage that yourself.

Retail
Take advantage of the new "Product expertise" and "Chain store" bonuses. Although having more than one store may partially cannabalize markets, the chain store effect will make up for alot of this. Also, the effects of advertising then can be spread over several stores

Supply and Demand
Think supply and demand. If the demand for your goods outstrips supply, increase prices! You will make more per item, and its not as if you are decreasing sales since you cant sell any more anyway!

Product Cycle
Be aware of market saturation: You can only make so much out of one line. After that, you will need to expand into other markets to keep making money. A single product range (With 3-4 products) can usually make you 600-800million depending on the product, if you are completely dominating the market that is

Advertising
Be careful about advertising. If a line is only making you $200,000/month in profits, don't spend $500,000 in advertising!